The $5.7 billion Facebook-Reliance Jio deal needs to be scrutinised by the country’s competition watchdog, mainly from the point of view of data that the combined entity will control, top government officials and industry experts told ET.
The two companies are “data elephants” in terms of controlling private data of Indians, and together the combined reach of Reliance Jio, Facebook and its messaging app WhatsApp would provide undue advantage against rivals, be it other technology giants like Google and Amazon or even local startups, according to the people cited above.
Read: Reliance Jio says no preferential access to Facebook, WhatsApp
Anshuman Thakur, strategy head at Reliance Jio, told ET that RIL would shortly approach the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for approval. As per company officials, CCI approval is the only regulatory clearance needed.
A top government official said that the two companies would control a lot of data of consumers.
“…we need the law to scrutinise the deal from the data advantage point of view and not just money or market share,” said the official who did not want to be named. “Data is becoming a factor to reckon competitiveness and therefore the data aspects of the competition law need to be sharpened and revisited,” the person said.
Read: How Facebook is logging into the Reliance Jio ecosystem
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